The Samajwadi Party is anxiously waiting for the results of the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat and two assembly constituencies where bypolls were held on December 5.
For the Bharatiya Janata Party, the low voter turnout at Rampur Sadar assembly seat is likely to bring a change in Rampur, dominated by Mohammad Azam Khan for over four decades. Besides the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, the SP is worried over its prospects in the Rampur assembly seat.
The bypoll for the Rampur assembly seat on December 5 recorded 33.83 per cent polling, 22.78 per cent less than in the 2022 assembly elections when 56.61 per cent polling was recorded in the constituency. In the past, whenever there was a decline in voter turnout, rarely was a change in the winning party in the seat and mostly, the SP won it.
This time the situation appears to be different which is evident from the demand for repoll in Rampur by Samajwadi Party. SP is not confident and has alleged that the Yogi Adityanath government did not allow SP supporters, especially Muslims, to cast their votes.
On the other hand, the BJP, which has never won the Rampur assembly seat till date, appears confident of turning the tables this time. Of the total voters in Rampur, over 56 per cent are Muslims.
In a by-election in Rampur in October, 2019, when senior SP leader Azam Khan vacated the seat after his election to Lok Sabha and fielded his wife Tazeen Fatma in the assembly bypoll, she won the seat by a slender margin of 7,716 votes. Only 40.81 per cent votes were polled in that election, about 15 per cent less than in the 2017 assembly elections. A decline in polling had put the BJP in a position to challenge the SP.
Sources in the Election Commission have denied the allegations leveled by the SP. They said the allegations of the SP were not substantiated in the poll panel’s investigation. The sources claimed that the bypoll in Rampur was free and fair.
SP chief whip in UP assembly, Manoj Pandey, said, “Muslim voters were stopped from casting their votes in the areas dominated by Muslims; polling there has been six to 10 per cent only whereas in other areas, polling was 50 to 60 per cent.”
He said pointed out that in the old city where Muslim voters are in majority, the polling was as low as 18 per cent whereas in other areas of the city and rural pockets where non-Muslim are in majority polling was around 50 per cent.
Pandey, however, claimed that despite low polling they were hopeful that SP candidate Asim Raza would win the election.
The BJP fielded Akash Saxena who had lost to Azam Khan in the 2022 assembly polls.
A BJP leader in Rampur said, “We are sure to win the Rampur seat because polling in Muslim areas was low and a larger number of SP voters did not turn up deliberately. Further, strict vigil by the police prevented bogus voting by the SP supporters.”
